A/N: Please read and review, criticism is welcome. This is my first fan fiction.

Disclaimer: All characters, except for the ones that are obviously mine, belong to JK, and whoever else owns them. I'm not making any money, ect, ect, ect.

The Arrival

She stepped solemnly down from the train, moving her hair out of her eyes. The platform was deserted, and a chilled wind blew gently through the air, making the fallen leaves of red and yellow turn, barely lit in the moonlight. It was October, of the year 1997. She saw a light coming towards the platform, a small splash of light showing shades of red, orange, and yellow on the surrounding trees.

A voice entered the air, it's from the light, actually, it's from the person holding the light. "Ar' you Manda Falcon?" It was a rough, but friendly voice, and the man who spoke was wearing a smile on his face.

"Yes, I am. Are you Hargrin?" She asks uncertainly. She was told that he would come to meet her at the train to take her to Hogwarts.

"Hagrid's th' name. Come alon' now." He motioned Manda to follow him through the dark path in the forest, "Its not tha' far away, shouldn' take more the' thirty minutes to wal' there."

Manda joined him on the path, looking around at her sides, this must be the forest that's near the school, she thought, it's a nice forest. It will be a good place, and the creatures seem different then the types in the ones near home; seems like it will be nice to explore.

About forty minutes later the path came to an end, showing the magnificence of Hogwarts. Manda looked around somewhat surprised, stopping in awe. Hogwarts looked much larger then her old school and a lot more obvious. Hagrid had kept on walking on. Manda had to run up and join him. Soon they reach a large wooden door. The door swung open, an old, strict faced lady stood at the other end.

"Hello, welcome to Hogwarts. I am Professor McGonagall; I will be teaching you Transfiguration. We already have received your possessions, but you still need to be sorted. Follow me to the Headmaster's office and you will be sorted there."

Manda nodded silently. She walked in, looking back to see the door close behind her blocking the view of Hagrid heading towards a small cabin near the forest. McGonagall started leading her through hallways, up stairs, and though walls, until they came to a statue. "Salamander Red" The Professor said, and on right on cue the statue opened up, showing a room with a twisting staircase, but nothing else much visible. Both of them enter, then McGonagall leads the way up the staircase to a door.

After opening the door, they both entered a room, the headmaster's office. The sorting hat lay dozing on a shelf seeming as old as the hat itself. McGonagall walked towards it, shook it a little to wake it. Once the hat was awoken, McGonagall gave it to Manda. "Put it on, and it will tell you what house to be in," she said while handing the hat to Manda.

Manda looked at the hat, then rolled her eyes, how can a hat decide what house I'm supposed to be in? I don't suppose it really matters anyways though. She put it on and waited no more then five seconds when it said "Slytherin, now can I go back to sleep?" loudly to both Manda and Professor McGonagall.

McGonagall took the hat then replied to it, "Yes. Here you go, back to your shelf," Once she set it down, she turned back to Manda and said "It is dinner right now in the Great Hall, you will eat at the Slytherin table, and you will sleep in the Slytherin dorm. Your belongings will be brought in and I will put your schedule with it. While you are here at Hogwarts, you will do most things with your house. Do you think you can manage to find the Great Hall all right? It was the two large doors we passed on the way here, near the entrance you came through."

"Yes, I think I will be able too. Thank you," Manda turned around and left the office. She tracked back the way she came, actually finding the Great Hall with little trouble. Once she reached the entrance of it, she went in, the loud chatter of students filled her ears and nobody seemed to notice her entering.

She looked at all the tables, and careful examining each one of them trying to guess which one is Slytherin. Since they all look alike, she gave up and went to what appeared to be the staff table and tapped Snape on his shoulder. He turned around and looked at Manda, waiting.

"Umm, excuse me, I'm a new student, could you tell me which table is Slytherin's?"

"Hmm? A Slytherin, eh? The best house you know. Alright," He motioned to a table on the far side of the hall, "That's Slytherin's table."

"Thank you, umm…Professor." Manda walked away to Slytherin's table and sat at the end farthest from the staff table, only receiving few glances from those near her, but besides that nobody notices a thing. Manda didn't eat very much, and only took a couple sips of her beverage. Once finished, she looked around at the rest of the table. She spent about five seconds looking at each student occupying her long table; quite a few of them looked familiar, she thought might know them from some of the meetings.

Those people are probably the only ones who would know what she really is, but nobody but each other probably knew it about themselves either. Looking down the table she saw one extremely familiar face. It's a boy with short spiked purple hair, which was originally dark blonde, his expressionless green-blue eyes gazed across the table, looking at nothing in particular, and is lips showed no sign of a smile, nor a frown as he thought, being unknowingly watched. His well defined chin bone moved up and down as he slowly chewed on his plain food.

It's Roger, She immediately realized, I didn't know he went here. I suppose he did move to Europe three years ago, so it would make sense that he would go here, but still. It's nice to see someone I've known all my life. She smiled slightly, the first real smile she'd given in a long time, it seemed like forever, then she got up and walked over to Roger. When she reached him, half way down the table, she rested her hand on his shoulder. "Hello," She said barely above a whisper.

He turned around and jumped up, pulling her into a welcoming hug "Manda! You're here!" He exclaimed excitedly smiling sincerely, "I can't believe you came here! I haven't seen you in, what has it been, three years? Three years that went by so fast, yet so slow"

"It's good to see you too, how have you been these past three years?" By this time a few people were watching them, but neither seemed to neither notice nor care, "It's been too long…"

"I've been fine, and you? Did your parents ever find out…?"

"I've been okay, they didn't find out, thank God! Cause if they did, I doubt I'd be alive now…you know how they are, well, he is I should say now. Mum died last September. Dad's still the Minister in the US, he's so ignorant of what happens, I can't believe it. But, did your dad ever…" she bit her lip.

Roger stops her from going on "Don't talk about that here," He said worried; "Please…I'll tell you later tonight. Come on, let's go to the Common Room now, you are a Slytherin, right?"

"Of course. I don't know where the Common Room is though."

Both Roger and Manda headed out of the Great Hall, Roger leading the way, going towards the Dungeon. "What's Hogwarts like?" Manda asked him when they started getting farther down, where no one else was around.

"Its okay I guess, but it's not the same as our old school. I really missed some of the people back home. Especially you Manda, you know we've known each other practically since we were born. I can't believe your actually here."

"I didn't know that you were here either. My dad made me come here, he said it was because I would get a better education, but personally I don't believe that. He's just sick of me being anywhere near him, this way he doesn't even have to see me over holidays, I have a feeling he knows that I am…one of us. I don't think he knows about you though, or knew about Justin. Justin's dead you know?"

"He's dead?"

"Yeah…his dad killed him." She said biting back tears, "It was the worst thing that he did by far; about a month ago it happened, I think. They were fighting again, and his dad was just more powerful then him. I can't believe he's gone. But at least I have you again."